Ronald Powell

September 28, 2009

- It was a win, but a frustrating one. The 1st quarter started smoothly with a quick 3-and-out from Wazzu followed by a quick TD from SC, but then 3 holding penalties, 1 offsides, 1 personal foul, and 1 roughing the kicker happened. Let's not even talk about the 3rd quarter...

- Nice to see Brice Butler get his 1st career TD. There was a overhead shot during the broadcast and you could see Brice start from the slot, move inside on the safety and then get nice separation off the break on the corner route; the defender really had no chance on the play. You can watch Brice talk about the play here.

- Matt Barkley's throw to Damian Williams on the 3rd TD was a thing of beauty and the play of the day. The anticipation and quick-decision showed why he is so highly-regarded. If you look at the play, Matt drops back looking left, checks off, makes a split-second decision to throw to Damian, and then delivers a perfect touch pass (while getting hit) over the Wazzu linebackers' heads and between the safeties.

Credit also goes to Coach Bates/Morton for calling a great play. In post-game interviews, the coaches/players talked about seeing large gaps in the middle of the field while studying game tapes last week. If you watch the play closely, the formation is trips right and 1 receiver to the left; off the snap every receiver runs a streak up field, but the key to the play is the SC tackles let the ends run by them and Joe McKnight, rather than block, jumps forward to mimic a screen play which causes Wazzu's linebackers to bite and take a step forward allowing Damian to run right by them and split the safeties. Great play all-around.

- Want to talk about a player doing work? Nick Perry has 6 sacks already playing limited minutes. He is currently the Pac-10 leader in the category. Nick just has that sixth sense for getting to the quarterback; he set a Michigan state record with 36 sacks in 2007 as a HS senior.

- Some prospects that showed up for Saturday's game: Sharrif Floyd (official visit), Ronald Powell, Robert Woods, George Farmer, Marquis Lee, George Uko, Dietrich Riley, Dion Bailey, Joshua Shaw, Antwaun Woods, Demetrius Wright, and more. The list of visitors could literally make up one side of a HS All-American game.

- Some big injuries from the game: Hebron Fangupo (broken fibula) and Marshall Jones (cracked vertebra) are out for the season. Jordan Campbell also sprained his ankle and Garrett Green suffered a concussion.

Onto Cal, which should be an interesting game. My head says this game should match up well for SC since we usually win against teams that rely heavily on the run, but considering how undisciplined and inconsistent our offense has looked, it's hard for me to feel confident. Despite Cal's beatdown last week, this game still deserves a lot of hype, since it essentially makes or breaks both teams' seasons. It should be a tough one.

D.J. Morgan @ #35: I'm going to go bearish on the current USC commit and say D.J. dropping from #20 in Rivals to #35 in ESPN is a good call. I actually think D.J. should drop a little further. He's a dynamic player but not good enough in any single area to deserve a top 25 ranking.

Kyle Prater @ #43: He's the top receiver on Rivals at #4 which I believe is way too high.

Ronald Powell @ #3: Top 3 is slightly high but the guy is a freak and can play both offense and defense. Definitely a top 10 player.

Bad Calls

Tony Jefferson @ #9: I'm a BIG fan of Tony but there is no way he's a top 10 player overall. Based on his tweener status alone he shouldn't be close to top 15. He fits nice at #30-45 range.

Lache Seastrunk @ #20: Lache is absolutely a top 10 player.

Trovon Reed @ #45: Trovon is a top 3 receiver in this class.

Anthony Barr @ #61: Deserves to be ranked higher despite being too big for his position.

August 03, 2009

Sounds like it from the video above. First he talks about Florida camps and competing against potential future teammates and then follows it up by saying USC is making his decision hard and is the reason why he hasn't made a commitment yet. That tells me that Ronald is leaning towards Florida at the moment. This definitely looks like one of those recruitments that won't be finished even with a commitment and likely will come down to signing day.

Rivals just released their updated top 250 ranking. Here are some thoughts:

- Ronald Powell moved up one spot and earned himself a 5th star, which I guess is deserved simply on his potential alone.

- Robert Woods moved into the top 20 which I don't understand. Am I the only person that thinks there's too much hype behind this kid? I personally think he's a fringe top 50 player. Maybe I just don't see it. To top it off, Woods moved up while Markeith Ambles dropped out of the top 30. I'll take Ambles over Woods any day.

- Still not sold on current commit D.J. Morgan as a top 20 player. No doubt he shows flashes of brilliance, but I don't know if he has the consistency. Will have to wait and see.

- In the last ranking I commented on Malcolm Jonesbeing too high at #11 so I definitely agree with him dropping down to #32. He should be out of the top 50.

- Rivals keeps sleeping on Sean Parker, but I guess I can understand why since he's not a camp type of player and at this point that has the most weight.

- Demetrius Wright, who's been a hot name lately, finally moved into the top 250 debuting at #102. Kid will continue to move up. Hope SC plays this one hard.

March 12, 2009

Complete ranking is here. The following are some names that have SC high on their list:

2. Lache Seastrunk, RB (TX)

6. Jackson Jeffcoat, DE (TX)

10. Jeff Luc, LB (FL)

11. Malcolm Jones, RB (CA)

13. Ronald Powell, ATH (CA)

14. Trovon Reed, WR (LA)

17. D.J. Morgan, RB (CA)

23. Markeith Ambles, WR (GA)

26. Robert Woods, WR (CA)

28. Dillon Baxter, WR (CA)

42. Tony Jefferson, LB (CA)

49. Sean Parker, DB (CA)

57. Christian Thomas, TE (CA)

62. Jake Matthews, OL (TX)

77. Delvin Jones, DE (FL)

80. DeMarco Cobbs, WR (OK)

92. Pete Thomas, QB (CA)

Bold = Current Commits

Lot of speculation came out of the Army All-American bowl as to whether Lache Seastrunk favored us since he was wearing SC socks (picture above) during practices - in all likelihood, probably shouldn't put too much stock in it.

Malcolm Jones and D.J. Morgan are rated too high and Sean Parker too low IMO. The one player I wish showed more interest in SC is Lamarcus Joyner (#7 player in nation) - kid is absolutely ridiculous.

February 25, 2009

D.J. Morgan (above) and Dillon Baxter, both commits for 2010 class, are really making a concerted effort to try and recruit players to join the class. Baxter, who's been very involved in the program, reminds me a lot of D.J. Shoemate who also committed early and was vocal early on.

Cassius Marsh, DT from Oaks Christian, was ready to commit at Junior Day but refrained from doing so out of respect of his parents' advice to cool off and think things over. Many still expect him to be a Trojan at some point.

One of my favorite recruits of 2010, Sean Parker, took a break from the FBU camp over at the Coliseum to take in Junior Day. Lot of schools are starting to pick up on Sean and he's getting a ton of offers. The early word is he's looking to go to school out of state, but lately he's been open to staying local and is showing interest in SC. He had this nice quote:

"Just being around the players and coaches on Saturday was incredible. They have so much energy and you get fired up being around them. They have a great football program and who wouldn't want to be a part of a team like that."

One of his best friends and former teammates is '09 commit, Byron Moore, so hopefully that'll provide some pull in bringing in Sean.